I might add to this that I very frequently finding myself using Amazon just for the reviews. You can learn a lot about a product by reading reviews, especially the 1 star ones. If a product has no Amazon reviews, I don't really trust it. I can't remember the last time I googled "Product X reviews."
Amazon and Google are on a collision course
41–50 of 69 posts
Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course
#42> "Shopping on Amazon is a superior user experience and it runs the table on the magical retailer formula of selection, price and convenience" Clearly has never used Amazon Canada. But in all seriousness, a great article. It's interesting to see how the different web markets overlap so easily.
> Clearly has never used Amazon Canada. Funny, I came here to say something more serious to this extent. The degree of American-centricity in this thread is astonishing (or perhaps I'm just used to Reddit). Outside of the US – to my understanding, anywhere outside of the US, not just Canada – Amazon is next to useless. The product selection is abysmal and shipping options are terrible. Maybe the article has some poin…
> to my understanding, anywhere outside of the US, not just Canada – Amazon is next to useless
No it's not. In France they are fantastic. The product selection is very narrow, yes, but everything else is perfect, namely:
- delivery time and accuracy
- customer service
I once bought a kitchen appliance that my kids broke by letting it fall on the floor. I told Amazon that I would like to buy the part that was broken and they said "we'll just send you a complete product as a replacement, free of charge". The new product came in the very next day.
After a life of having to deal with French retailers this feels like landing on Mars, if Mars had rivers of milk and honey.
Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course
#43If I can't buy it via Amazon, I probably won't buy it. I trust the reviews, and I trust them to play fair if they've sent the wrong thing, to such a degree that any other avenue feels like a big waste of my time.
This is so true.
The last thing I've recently bought at a retailer other than amazon felt like a hassle.
I decided to buy some glasses from "39 dollar glasses".com -- they offered overnight shipping, which is something I've gotten used to thanks to Amazon.
I've been sitting in my office all day waiting for them to get here, and they haven't, so I got on their website and talked to a person via chat. I found out that they ship 2nd air...but only after a 3-5 day order processing time.
To somebody used to shopping on amazon, that seems completely preposterous. That seems especially insane given that I paid almost $20 for the shipping.
Half the stuff I order on amazon I get delivered on the same day.
Going to some other retailer and finding out that my order won't get here until next week has turned from "normal for ordering things online" to "an awful experience".
--
Obviously amazon doesn't sell glasses, but my point is that unless somebody can offer at least the service level that amazon does, I won't shop with them for anything ever.
Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course
#44> "Shopping on Amazon is a superior user experience and it runs the table on the magical retailer formula of selection, price and convenience" Clearly has never used Amazon Canada. But in all seriousness, a great article. It's interesting to see how the different web markets overlap so easily.
We are a top seller of jewelry in Amazon U.S. We were invited to Canada jewelry beta but they keep pushing back the launch date. We would sell at the same price + some extra built in to keep shipping low. Waiting on you, Canada!
Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course
#45So this is a bit of a tangent, but I'm a bit of a fan of economist Hyman Minsky (fascinating, accessible writing on economics btw). One of the really interesting things that Minsky repeatedly points out is that advertising isn't technologically necessary. It's kinda mind-boggling to step back and think that the main service (advertising) that one of the most valuable companies in world charges for is entirely unneces…
What I find even more mind-bending is that since premium brands often come from the same production line as cheaper brands, you're actually paying a company a premium to to convince you they're worth the premium for convincing you even more they're worth ... you get my point.
Obviously the importance of it depends on the product, and some things don't do it at all, but there is the consideration that although two products came from the same line, they were branded according to how well they passed QA.
Sometimes they keep the same overall brand (see: Intel and AMD disabling defective cores) and sometimes nobody even pretends that the product you are buying is not the result of failed QA for another product (bags of broken pretzel bits), but between those you get a fuzzier line. I have heard that consumer batteries do this for example: the weird-brand batteries that come in your remote control from the factory are probably rebranded batteries from a company you have heard of.
Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course
#46If I can't buy it via Amazon, I probably won't buy it. I trust the reviews, and I trust them to play fair if they've sent the wrong thing, to such a degree that any other avenue feels like a big waste of my time.
This is so true. The last thing I've recently bought at a retailer other than amazon felt like a hassle. I decided to buy some glasses from "39 dollar glasses".com -- they offered overnight shipping, which is something I've gotten used to thanks to Amazon. I've been sitting in my office all day waiting for them to get here, and they haven't, so I got on their website and talked to a person via chat. I found out that…
Glasses are a poor example because they have to be customized for each customer. Did you really think that they had your prescription with your choice of lens coating in stock that they could just ship out to you next day?
Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course
#47If I can't buy it via Amazon, I probably won't buy it. I trust the reviews, and I trust them to play fair if they've sent the wrong thing, to such a degree that any other avenue feels like a big waste of my time.
As a major Amazon 3P seller of jewelry, thats great to hear. It would be better if Amazon didnt take a 20% cut, of course.
Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course
#48One of my biggest fears as a search guy is that Amazon starts dabbing in general search.
You can also SEO amazon's search.
Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
OnTrac recently "lost" a 75 llb package of mine while on the truck out for delivery, and took several days to admit it was missing, and only then after about a dozen calls and emails. There's not a doubt in my mind it was either stolen (most likely) or the delivery person simply didn't want to lift the box and kicked it out the back of the truck. Amazon had to eat the cost of replacing it, and I subsequently required…
As someone from an area without OnTrac, how could this company even have gotten a contract with Amazon? They sound worse than "play football with your packages" FedEx and UPS. And I have to admit that is an impressive feat.
IIRC OnTrac uses contractors, mostly of the "some guy with a truck" variety, of wildly varying quality, and is very cheap. When they're good there's nothing wrong with them but the bad ones do things you would never see a UPS or FedEx guy doing.
Re: Amazon and Google are on a collision course
#50So this is a bit of a tangent, but I'm a bit of a fan of economist Hyman Minsky (fascinating, accessible writing on economics btw). One of the really interesting things that Minsky repeatedly points out is that advertising isn't technologically necessary. It's kinda mind-boggling to step back and think that the main service (advertising) that one of the most valuable companies in world charges for is entirely unneces…
I live in a world as free from advertising as I can make it (AdBlock + no tv + no radio), and I do get along fine.
What's interesting is that advertising that doesn't concern you isn't as annoying as advertising for products that you're able to buy. I love The Daily Show, but sometimes, for some reason, it only works with AdBlock disabled.
All ads on The Daily Show are for American products not available here (fast food brands that aren't present in France, cars that don't exist here) and those ads don't bother me much -- they don't clutter my brain the way an ad for something I could buy does.